Blood on our hands: a letter to Gov. Sundquist

Created 01/24/2001 - 1:00am

Dear Gov. Sundquist:

Philip Workman will be executed on Jan. 31, if you do not intervene immediately to stop his execution.

Workman, who admits to using drugs at the time, robbed a fast food restaurant in Memphis and resisted arrest. During the fray, Memphis police officer Ronald Oliver was killed. A trial jury convicted Workman of the murder in 1981.

Since mid-1999, evidence has been uncovered that strongly suggests Workman may be innocent. Ballistics evidence indicates Oliver's wounds could not have come from the gun Workman was using. Until recently, an X-ray from Oliver